Pat Lam came to the defence of two of his homegrown players who have caught some flak in recent weeks following the late collapse away at Saracens.
The Bristol director of rugby labelled critical comments about Andy Uren and Callum Sheedy from the club’s fanbase as ‘disappointing’ as he spoke after the Bears’ 43-19 victory over Sale Sharks in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
Half-backs Uren and Sheedy both excelled at Ashton Gate with the Welshman, aided by front foot ball from his pack, delivered quickly by his scrum-half, outplaying Sale’s headline returnee George Ford who was making his competitive return after seven months out with an Achilles injury suffered in the Premiership final back in June.
Two years ago Sheedy and Ford were going head-to-head against each other in the Six Nations, adorned in the red of Wales and white of England respectively, and on that occasion, at the Principality Stadium, it was the Bristol man celebrating a win by a similar margin as well with the final scoreboard reading 40-24.
It was a landmark occasion for 27-year-old Sheedy on Friday night who was making his 150th senior competitive appearance for Bristol a week after Uren passed the same landmark.
Bristolian academy graduate Uren was particularly in the firing line on social media after kicking possession away as Bristol saw a nine-point lead slip in the final five minutes at the StoneX Stadium to lose 20-19.
Lam said: “Sheedy is such a massive person and Andy (Uren), last week making his 150th appearance. They are such massive people at our club. They’re the first ones disappointed if they don’t play well, it always hurts me when people have a go at those two because not everyone gets it right all the time.
"Their hearts are in the right place, they make mistakes but I think some of the abuse those boys got last week was disappointing. But they bounced back nicely today, they’ve got great support within the team and great support from the fans and that’s the most important thing.”
Lam used the cup game to provide more senior playing opportunities for the exciting crop of young talent coming through the Bears academy, with three players from last season’s U18 Academy league-winning side along with 20-year-old second row Charlie Rice who was named man of the match.
Lam added: “I’m pleased for the boys, particularly guys like Charlie Rice, Paddy Pearce, Sam Worsley and Aaron Tull you know guys who have come through and were in our U18s last year. It’s good to see some homegrown boys come through and they played well.”
Bristol have this weekend off with the Six Nations underway but return to action on Friday, February 17 when Newcastle Falcons come to Ashton Gate in the Gallagher Premiership.
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